


Tricks, Treats, and Demigods

by shadowtraveled (meteorfest)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Halloween, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 11:43:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2546336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meteorfest/pseuds/shadowtraveled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Greeks and Romans are getting together for a Halloween celebration, complete with city-wide trick-or-treating. Percy almost doesn't go until he convinces Nico to go with him. Percico pre-slash, implied Reynabeth, and Will/Mitchell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tricks, Treats, and Demigods

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a trick or treat gift for Cedarleaf on tumblr! Contains some pretty vague Blood of Olympus spoilers.

It was Halloween, just a couple of months after the war against Gaea and her giants had finally ended. In the last two months, things had been a rush, with the two camps working together to set up an exchange program, organize a communication system, and put everything in place for their futures together, as a unified family. By the time October had rolled around, everyone had been exhausted by the effort and stress levels were beginning to rise.

So the idea of a Halloween celebration had been proposed. It would be held at Camp Jupiter, it was decided, since they had plenty of room, the organizational skills to pull off the celebration, and, as Reyna had claimed before, the Romans basically  _invented_  parties. They’d have everything ready when the Greeks who wanted to attend arrived. 

Percy was among the ones going. He’d always loved Halloween - costumes and free candy were one of the best combinations known to mankind, after all. Of course he was going to go. He and Jason had managed to convince a few friends to dress up with a group costume theme - the Justice League; Jason had immediately called Superman, Piper would be going as Wonder Woman, Percy was going as Aquaman, and they’d convinced Annabeth to go as Black Canary. They’d wanted to get Nico to be Batman, but the son of Hades had told them that he already had a costume in mind. Frank had been their backup choice, but he was doing a couple costume with Hazel, so Jason had called up his old friend, Bobby, to be their Batman.

On Halloween morning, transport had been arranged to get the Greek attendees to Camp Jupiter. By late afternoon, and no one cared to try to explain to newer campers how it was possible, they’d arrived to the Roman camp and were already beginning to mingle, though the party didn’t start until six. Many of the Greeks had worn their costumes on the bus, but others still had to change.

Percy tried not to be hurt when Annabeth promptly hurried over to Reyna and hugged the praetor tight when they arrived. Their plans to go to college together, stay together as a couple, had fallen through just a couple of weeks ago, after Annabeth had approached Percy to confess that she had been rethinking things and realized she wasn’t as in love with him as she’d once been. Percy knew that she was in love with someone else, with Reyna, in fact, but it had hurt that just weeks before, she’d told him she loved him, that she wanted to stay with him.

He’d said something about fickleness and earned himself a hard glare, a week with Annabeth refusing to speak to him, and eventually the hard realization that he’d better apologize to her or risk losing her friendship forever. 

It still hurt, though, knowing that the girl he loved had fallen out of love with him and into love with Reyna. 

The party served as a great distraction from that hurt, though. So many people had come to celebrate together that it shattered previous party records. Demigods, legacies,  _lares_ , and fauns all danced and chatted and played games together. There were plans later to go into New Rome for trick-or-treating. It was the most fun Percy had had in a long time, truly the best way to celebrate and loosen up.

As it got dark, groups got together to go out trick-or-treating and, even though Percy was supposed to go with Jason and the others, he’d told them to go on ahead. He stayed back for a while, grabbing a bag of Skittles from the snack table, and popped a couple of candies into his mouth.

"Aren’t you going out?" 

Percy turned, surprised that someone else was still hanging around. What was even more surprising was that it was Nico. Still more surprising than that was the costume Nico was wearing. He honestly would not have recognized the son of Hades, if it hadn’t been for his face and voice. His black hair had either been hidden carefully under a wig or had been magically dyed and styled by one of the Hecate kids - Lou Ellen and her siblings had been charging for use of magic in costumes for the party - and was now a spiky blond swirl that stood upright. A long, black leather coat, zipped up the front, was draped over his thin frame, and in his gloved hand, Nico carried a skillfully crafted Keyblade.

"I didn’t know you played Kingdom Hearts," Percy told him.

"I didn’t know you liked Aquaman," Nico countered. He gave a shrug. "Will got me into the games. He said I reminded him of Roxas, so I should go as him for Halloween." He brought his Keyblade up to rest over his shoulder. "So how come you’re not with the rest of the Justice League, going out and hauling in as much candy as you possibly can?"

Percy shrugged and tossed another couple of Skittles into his mouth. “I dunno. Guess I’m not in the mood.” A lie, really. He just…hadn’t really wanted to go after Annabeth had gotten Reyna, dressed as Xena, to join the group for trick-or-treating. He just couldn’t be around his ex-girlfriend and the girl she loved now. He needed time to heal. “Why aren’t you out there?”

"I’m not really big on sweets," Nico admitted. "I wouldn’t really know what to do with a bagful of candy that I mostly wouldn’t eat."

"Use the candy as bribes to get the Hermes kids to do you favors," Percy suggested. "They take candy as bribes all the time." He gave Nico a grin. "Or give it all to me."

"Now why should I give you my candy when you aren’t even going out to get your own?"

"You could give it to your boyfriend, then."

Nico wrinkled his nose at Percy. “Are you talking about Will?” he asked. he shook his head. “He’s not my boyfriend. We’re just…friends. He’s dating Mitchell.”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “I thought you two were - “

Nico shook his head again. “I like him, but…I guess I like guys who aren’t available. It’s alright, though. I like being friends with him and Mitchell’s a pretty good friend, too.”

Percy bit his lip, then reached out and gave Nico’s shoulder a light pat. He was just a little surprised that Nico didn’t flinch from his touch; Nico had always been a little jumpy around him. “Sorry, man,” he told him. 

"It’s okay."

Silence fell between the two of them. Percy set the bag of Skittles aside after a minute, then turned to the other boy. “Hey, let’s go trick-or-treating. You and me.”

"Percy, I just told you I don’t like sweets."

"That’s not the point. I mean, yeah, it’s kind of the point, but there’s also the point of  _it’s fun_  and you and I could both use a little fun tonight.” Percy gave him a grin and reached for his hand, tugging the younger demigod with him as he headed away from the empty party venue. “C’mon!”

Percy wasn’t really giving Nico much of a choice, so the son of Hades followed. The two of them grabbed treat bags from the pile that had been set aside and headed out to join the countless others that were already going door to door in the Roman city. They hit house after house, Percy elbowing Nico into ringing the door bells and actually calling out “Trick or Treat!” as they went along.

They spent over an hour going around the city, collecting candy, chatting together, and generally having fun. They pointed out some of the other kids in costume, called out to a couple of pranksters, even joined Cecil for a prank on a group dressed up as the Power Rangers. Percy forgot all about Annabeth and Reyna and found himself really enjoying Nico’s company. The younger boy was a lot more loose than he’d been in a long time, actually enjoying himself, and Percy could see that excited ten-year-old that had been forced to grow up fast resurfacing in Nico as the son of Hades laughed and grinned with him.

At nine, they decided to call it quits on trick-or-treating and headed towards the hotel in the city that had been rented out for the Greeks to stay at for the night. Rooms weren’t really assigned, basically taken first come, first served, so Percy and Nico were put together in a room, which neither of them seemed to mind at all. Percy led the way to the room and they both emptied their bags on one of the beds as Percy grabbed the remote and turned the television on.

"Oh man, I hope we do this again next year!" Percy exclaimed. "Tonight was awesome!"

Nico nodded, smiling as he picked through the candy. “Yeah, it was.”

"I’ve never seen you smile that much," Percy told him. He shot Nico a grin. "You had  _fun._ ”

"I did, yeah." Nico pulled open a fun-sized package of Whoppers and stuck one of the malt balls in his mouth. "Thanks, Percy."

"Don’t mention it!" Percy grabbed a Kit Kat and opened it, crunching a bar in his mouth before starting to sort through the candy. "I really liked seeing you have fun. I haven’t seen you that happy in a long time." He knew the circumstances, the pain that Nico had gone through, the isolation and rejection he’d faced. Percy himself often felt that he’d contributed to it, never quite being the friend he should have been to Nico. Now he wanted to make up for it, to be closer to Nico and see him smile more often. "Hey, Nico. Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

Percy paused, thinking that maybe this wasn’t the best time to bring it up, but he pressed on after a moment. “Did you mean it when you said I wasn’t your type?”

Nico stared at him. “I…” He sat back, biting his lip. “Not  _entirely_.”

"And you still think I’m cute?"

Now Nico crossed his arms over his chest. “Percy, you and Annabeth  _just_  broke up a couple of weeks ago. Whether you’re my type or not, whether I still think you’re cute or not, I’m  _not_  going to be a rebound for you.” _  
_

"I don’t want you to be," Percy said. If he was to be honest, he didn’t want to rush into a new relationship, especially when he wasn’t sure what he wanted from it. He liked Nico. He was just beginning to realize how much he liked Nico. "Look, I’m not saying we should start dating tomorrow. I’m just curious if there’s a chance we could in time."

"In time, maybe," Nico replied. He sighed, arms tightening over his chest. "Gods, and I was  _finally_ moving on from my crush on you.”

Percy gave him a half-apologetic smile. “So, do you want to go out to breakfast tomorrow? Just as a stepping stone date so we can start slowly?”

Nico reached for a package of candy, M&Ms, and tossed them to Percy. “Sure, why not? We’ve got to start somewhere.”

Percy grinned. “I look forward to it.”


End file.
